Jeff Gordon didn't just collect his second win of the season this past weekend in the 5 Hour Energy 500 at Pocono Raceway, nor did he just get his fifth win in Pocono. With his victory Sunday, Gordon not only virtually locked himself into the 2011 Chase, but also his already Hall of Fame worthy career. It was Gordon's 85th career victory, tying both Darrell Waltrip and Bobby Allison for third on the all time win list.
"I really can't even express in words what it means to tie Darrell Waltrip and Bobby Allison at 84 wins because I just never thought it would ever happen for me, or really when I got in this sport for anybody to win that many races is amazing."
It was yet another consistent run for "The Closer" Kevin Harvick; a three time winner this year, Harvick used a two tire stop early in the race to get track position and stayed there, earning his sixth top five of the season.
Kyle Busch finish third, his seventh top five of the season, but went through post race tech three times before NASCAR deemed his car too low. On Monday he was penalized six points, remaining fifth. His crew chief Dave Rogers was fined $25,000 for the infraction.
In a statement on Monday, Joe Gibbs Racing said "We brought the No. 18 car back to our race shop and have identified the problem which caused us to measure low during the postrace inspection process in Pocono. We have made NASCAR aware of our findings, and we accept the penalty they have issued today."
Speaking of Harvick and Busch, their rival continued in the Pocono mountains with some mind games on Happy's part; Harvick, and even his RCR teammate Jeff Burton made life difficult for Rowdy when the No. 29 and No. 18 were racing each other.
"I was running my own race – it was another car I had to pass," Busch said of the hard racing. "Seemed like he was trying to make it awfully difficult on me. There's a couple times where I just had to back off and wait, got back to him and tried to pass him again."
Harvick, who along with Busch is off his five race probation after their Darlington altercation, said Busch "knows he has one coming" and that he (Harvick) "just wanted him to think about it."
The rivalry between these two seems to be far from over as we creep closer to this year's championship Chase.
The Stewart Haas Racing machines of Ryan Newman and Tony Stewart had strong runs early on, but both lost third gear during the event which saw Newman finish ninth, his first top ten since Darlington and Stewart finishing 21st.
Denny Hamlin, a four time Pocono winner, also had a strong run going until he had a flat tire right after a pit stop, sending him back to pit road and a 19th place finish. Hamlin remains winless in 2011; at this point last season, Hamlin had collected four of his eight victories.
Kurt Busch's infamous tirades over the radio may have paid off- along with his back to back poles in Kansas and Pocono, Busch has finished in the top ten the last three weeks.
“We were able to have smooth pit stops, not the greatest, but smooth. We had a great-handling car at certain points of the race, a little tight here, a little loose there. Just a great genuine day for our team to run in the top five all day.”
The next time the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series hits the track will be in the Irish hills of Michigan at the Michigan International Speedway for the Heluva Good! Sour Cream Dips 400. Coverage begins on TNT at 1 pm ET.
Thanks SB Nation, NASCAR.com, SPEEDTV.com, NASCAR on TNT, Yahoo! Sports and Racing Reference for the stats, quotes and information used in this piece. Photo via Yahoo! Sports.
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